0000000000613869
AUTHOR
Elisa Herraez
Liver and gastrointestinal cancers
Abstract One important limitation in the treatment of liver and gastrointestinal cancers is their poor response to available chemotherapy, which is due in part to efficient mechanisms of defense against antitumor drugs. An important role in chemoresistance is played by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) proteins, normally involved in barrier/secretory functions of the digestive apparatus. ABC pumps, often up-regulated in cancers derived from these organs, actively export antitumor agents from cancer cells, thereby reducing the pharmacological effect of these drugs. Among the ABC proteins with the highest impact on the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype of many cancer types is MDR1 or P-glycoprote…
Molecular bases of the poor response of liver cancer to chemotherapy
Summary A characteristic shared by most frequent types of primary liver cancer, i.e., hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) in adults, and in a lesser extent hepatoblastoma (HB) mainly in children, is their high refractoriness to chemotherapy. This is the result of synergic interactions among complex and diverse mechanisms of chemoresistance (MOC) in which more than 100 genes are involved. Pharmacological treatment, although it can be initially effective, frequently stimulates the expression of MOC genes, which results in the relapse of the tumor, usually with a more aggressive and less chemosensitive phenotype. Identification of the MOC genetic signature accounting fo…
Chemoresistance and chemosensitization in cholangiocarcinoma
One of the main difficulties in the management of patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is their poor response to available chemotherapy. This is the result of powerful mechanisms of chemoresistance (MOC) of quite diverse nature that usually act synergistically. The problem is often worsened by altered MOC gene expression in response to pharmacological treatment. Since CCA includes a heterogeneous group of cancers their genetic signature coding for MOC genes is also diverse; however, several shared traits have been defined. Some of these characteristics are shared with other types of liver cancer, namely hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatoblastoma. An important goal in modern onco…